Fundacja FUNDUSZ WSPÓŁPRACY

The Partnership was established to work out methods for counteracting inheritance of unemployment in families affected by this problem. Project activities are targeted at three groups of recipients: the beneficiaries - i.e. families with members who have been unemployed for a long time; institutions involved in social and occupational integration; and local communities.

The Programme covers unemployed persons from four districts of Rybnik City: Paruszowiec, Boguszowice, Niedobczyce and Chwałowice, as well as those from Czerwionka-Leszczyny Local Authority. According to available studies, residents of these areas account for 54% of all unemployed persons registered with Rybnik Labour Office. A high rate of unemployment is mainly due to restructuring in local enterprises - the winding up of Silesia Steel Plant, coal mining plants and their vendors. A significant proportion of the residents have lost their jobs forever. Their skills and certificates held are useless in other trades. The situation is aggravated by the fact that in Silesian families men are traditionally chief income earners, while women take care of the home and do not have any meaningful skills to take a job. All family members, including children, are affected by long-term joblessness which leads to the syndrome of "inheritable unemployment". In the geographic area under the project, there are no reasonable procedures or practices that would allow an efficient cooperation, dialogue and exchange of information between unemploymentinvolved institutions. As a consequence, serious problems arise in interactions between employers and the unemployed.

In addition to massive layoffs, key reasons of unemployment in the Rybnik area include traditional problems of the unemployed: a low level of education, mismatch of skills and qualifications held with actual labour market requirements, lack of job seeking skills (poor level of activity and mobility), difficult access to information and a long-term occupational inactivity. Poor linguistic skills and unfamiliarity with information and communication technologies make
young generation ill-prepared for finding a job.

Partnership activities are targeted at those families, where two generations are suffering from unemployment or where parents are unemployed, while adolescent children are likely to share their fate. The Project is innovative in that its range covers the entire families rather that a redundant person. Four hundred beneficiaries have been selected to the Programme, including 100 people who have been unemployed for a long time and 300 family members. This structure makes it possible to develop individualised training curricula and motivation courses that are tailored to specific educational needs of the beneficiaries. Based on initial tests, Project participants are assigned to particular training groups. The key objective of the Project is to provide for equal occupational opportunities of community groups affected by inequality for lack of skills and inadequate level of education. Accordingly, a comprehensive programme including motivation/therapy courses and training events. Professional advisors, psychologists, trainers and educators will work with the families to prevent a transfer of bad habits to the young generation and to mobilize and integrate all members of the family. Sessions with young people will provide the beneficiaries with tools that will enable them to behave properly on the labour market. The Project will encourage enterprise attitudes by providing self-employment projects with financial and counselling support. Training events and courses based on the latest communication/information technology tools have been tailored to the needs of the local labour market, as specified by poviat Labour Office in Rybnik.

Final beneficiaries of the Project include members of Partnership's task force. They will attend training events to learn and perfect innovative methods of work with those who have been unemployed for a long time and to learn project management methodology, including MS Project IT tools. The Partnership will work out a method for coordination of institutions involved in social/occupational integration. This will be supported by a platform of cooperation and information/experience sharing between the local organisations, as well as by seminars and workshops attended by representatives of similar partnerships from Spain, Italy and France.

Dissemination activities targeted at press media, local governments, welfare organisations, labour offices and local communities are an integral part of the Project. The aim of Project promotion is to extend the scope of unemployment-targeted activities by involving local and self-government organisations (so far these issues have been the domain of poviat labour offices); to introduce common methods applied by job counsels and psychologists; and to improve the efficiency of human resources at the labour market. The Project will be promoted by European Thematic Groups, National Thematic Networks, at thematic conferences and seminars, using direct contacts and meetings with the representatives of institutions and government agencies, discussion groups, a website, press articles, information initiatives (posters, leaflets, radio and TV broadcasts) and multimedia presentations. An animated debate between institutions, organisations and government agencies involved in ensuring social/occupation integration of the unemployed will contribute to the planning of comprehensive vocational training events and procedures for working with families affected by long-term unemployment.

• Dual model of vocational and activating training for long-term unemployed persons and members of their families